Service Design, meet AI - with Pontus Wärnestål - Part 2

12/12/23 • 61 min

On the need for service design in the age of AI, with award-winning Service Designer and Human-Computer Interaction researcher Pontus Wärnestål. The second part of a two-part episode.

In this guest episode, Juli, Pontus, and the pack hiked up to the Hármashatárhegy airport to dive deep into all the things we call AI.

The path we took:

Thought leaders who can expand our understanding of tech possibilities
Humans changing the job landscape with AI, or AI taking our jobs
How AI is about predicting the future, and how that can go very wrong
The agency of designers on a strategic level, design maturity in an organization
The way forward is education - different education paths leading to responsible service design
Worries about the dilution of the service design profession
How interaction design can finally be about designing interactions, not just screens
And advice for mindful design in the age of AI

Further reading:

Grab your headphones, and head to the snowy hills to walk with us!

Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!

★ Support this podcast ★

On the need for service design in the age of AI, with award-winning Service Designer and Human-Computer Interaction researcher Pontus Wärnestål. The second part of a two-part episode.

In this guest episode, Juli, Pontus, and the pack hiked up to the Hármashatárhegy airport to dive deep into all the things we call AI.

The path we took:

Thought leaders who can expand our understanding of tech possibilities
Humans changing the job landscape with AI, or AI taking our jobs
How AI is about predicting the future, and how that can go very wrong
The agency of designers on a strategic level, design maturity in an organization
The way forward is education - different education paths leading to responsible service design
Worries about the dilution of the service design profession
How interaction design can finally be about designing interactions, not just screens
And advice for mindful design in the age of AI

Further reading:

Grab your headphones, and head to the snowy hills to walk with us!

Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!

★ Support this podcast ★

Previous Episode

AI, Meet Service Design - with Pontus Wärnestål - Part 1

On the need for service design in the age of AI, with award-winning Service Designer and Human-Computer Interaction researcher Pontus Wärnestål.

In this guest episode, Juli, Pontus, and the pack hiked up to the Hármashatárhegy airport to dive deep into all the things we call AI.

The path we took:

The importance of having a critical eye toward AI, and why it is no longer optional to be interested in AI
Defining AI and ML among fluffy terms, stochastic parrots, and semantic dragons
The five pillars of service design, and the necessity of focusing on backstage operations
Legal implications, and the current state of tech based on data theft
Breaking things fast vs the ethics of business decisions
And a brief history lesson with Ada Lovelace, envisioning a machine capable of composing music

Grab your headphones, and head to the snowy hills to walk with us!

Further reading:

Ps. At some point in our lives, we all were tech bros. Sorry for all the tech bro-bashing that’s about to happen in this episode.

Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!

★ Support this podcast ★

Next Episode

Designer of Interventions - with Morten Bune Pedersen

On Service design as mediation, on the borders of organizational development, with guest Morten Pedersten.

In this guest episode, Juli, Morten, and guest dog Max hiked around the Hålandsvatnet lake near Stavanger and talked about Scandinavian design and business culture.

The path we took:

A brief intro to Morten, and the step to leave a management role to build something new;
How a background in psychology and organizational development can merge with service design;
A dream Scandinavian company: transparency, open salaries, sharing burdens and ownership at Canoe;
The Scandinavian design world, with a history of collaboration, flat hierarchies, and government support for design;
Designers who help and serve vs designers who want to impress;
Changing definitions and expectations around design work;
And a brief glimpse into AI, as a mediator between people, not a shortcut to cheaper work.

Further reading:

https://servicedesignnext.com
https://www.canoe.no/
https://www.regjeringen.no/globalassets/upload/bld/nedsatt-funksjonsevne/norway-universally-designed-by-2025-web.pdf
Mauricio Manhaes' article in Touchpoint Magazine about Design as Female Characteristics can be downloaded here. Ongoing conversation on the subject on Linkedin can be followed here.

Grab your headphones, and head to the nearest lake to walk with us!

Ps. If you want to chime in, DM us or leave a comment on our Instagram, or find us on Threads - we're @paths.puddles.products and would love your feedback!

★ Support this podcast ★